QLD:Gillard shares the love with AWU

AAP General News (Australia)
02-14-2011
QLD:Gillard shares the love with AWU

By Gabrielle Dunlevy

GOLD COAST, Qld, Feb 14 AAP - Prime Minister Julia Gillard has reached out to one of
Australia's most influential unions, as polling shows her government's popularity slipping
among voters and within the union itself.

Valentines Day was a fitting date to open the Australian Workers' Union's biennial
conference on the Gold Coast, where a roll call of federal Labor turned out to share the
love at the union's 125th anniversary dinner.

After leaks from a cabinet meeting last week showing Labor's two-party vote down three
points in a Fairfax Nielsen poll on Monday and an AWU survey showing sliding support for
Labor's economic management, Ms Gillard emphasised solidarity with the powerful union.

"Some are driven to conclude that the Labor Party no longer understands its purpose,"

she said. "I think in all of these reflections we are showing an uncertainty and a timidity
that is not justified and we should not forgive.

"I am crystal clear as Labor Party leader what the purpose of our political party is
... to ensure that every Australian, no matter the circumstances of their birth, enjoys
opportunity."

Working together as a team, Labor and the union movement were "unbeatable", Ms Gillard said.

In her off-the-cuff speech, the prime minister also praised AWU stalwart Bill Ludwig
and national secretary Paul Howes.

But she took a dig at Mr Howes' book Confessions of a Faceless Man, which chronicles
his role in last year's demise of former prime minister Kevin Rudd.

Mr Howes must have misunderstood the meaning of the word "confession", Ms Gillard joked.

"It comes from a religious practice where one goes and acknowledges his error and asks
for forgiveness," she said.

"It is therefore not appropriate to start any text with the words: 'I confess, I was right'.

"It seems to me it is perhaps hard to describe one's self as a faceless man having
in the past described one's self as a media tart, these things are mutually inconsistent."

Mr Howes had earlier used the conference to renew calls for the abolition of the Australian
Building and Construction Commission (ABCC).

The vast amount of construction about to take place in Queensland after recent floods
and Cyclone Yasi meant there was nothing more urgent than axing the "evil" ABCC, he said.

"While it exists, it will be a barrier to the reconstruction effort and an attack on
AWU members' rights," Mr Howes told the conference.

The union also kept up pressure on the Gillard government over the proposed mineral
resources rent tax.

Mr Howes said money from an RRT could help repair disaster-hit Queensland.

He said it was time mining bosses such as Queensland's Clive Palmer admitted the proceeds
of the mining tax were now vital to mining regions to restore roads and rail links for
export.

"It will not just be good for Clive and his mining mates, but it will be good for all
Australians," Mr Howes said.

Delegates passed two resolutions on superannuation, agreeing to campaign for a further
increase to the superannuation guarantee to 15 per cent, and abolish the exemption on
superannuation for workers who earn less than $450 a month.

The federal government has committed to raising the minimum superannuation guarantee
to 12 per cent.

The conference continues on Tuesday, when Treasurer Wayne Swan will address it.

AAP gd/was/msk

KEYWORD: AWU WRAP

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